Cameron bows to pressure to allow more refugees
The Guardian
David Cameron will respond to growing international and domestic demands that Britain take more refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war by announcing that the UK will take in thousands more, reports The Guardian. Final details of the numbers, funding and planned location are being urgently thrashed out in Whitehall. Those selected to come to the UK will be drawn from the UNHCR camps on the border of Syria. It is not expected that the UK will allow the number to be as high as tens of thousands. Cameron remains convinced that accepting large numbers of Syrian refugees who are already in Europe will make the crisis worse and encourage more chaos, since it will only incentivise more people to undertake the risky journey from the Middle East. Downing Street officials acknowledge that Cameron has been moved to act by the gathering change in the public mood, brought to a head by the publication of photos showing a dead Syrian boy washed up on a beach in Turkey. The refugees will be taken from in-country refugee camps, probably under an existing Home Office vulnerable person relocation scheme administered in conjunction with the UNHCR that resettles Syrians placed in camps on the Syrian border.
